Putu Oka Sukanta, was born in Singaraja, Bali, in July 29, 1939, and has been writing since the age of 16. He has traveled widely invited for lecture, seminar and reading his writings to Asian countries, Europe, USA, and Australia. He was invited to follow the Festival and Workshop Human-Writes, in Manoa, Hawaii, year 2001. He have awarded NEMIS prize from Chili for his short story “Luh Galuh”. He also active in HIV/AIDS programs and producing documentary films. As a member of Lekra, he was imprisoned by New Order without trial for ten years (1966—1976).

Toni Pollard has been a teacher of Indonesian in Australia for over 40 years, both at high school and university level. A NAATI qualified translator of Indonesian to English since 1993, Toni has taken up literary translation since her retirement from the University of Western Sydney at the end of 2004. Di Atas Siang, Di Bawah Malam by Putu Oka Sukanta is her first major translation. Her second, the novel Mirah dari Banda, by Hanna Rambe is currently in preparation for publication in 2010 by Lontar Press in Jakarta, along with two short stories in Menagerie 8. Toni is a regular contributor to the Ubud Writers and Readers Festival's bilingual publication, funded by HIVOS, of the works of young Indonesian writers attending the annual event.

Putu Oka’s literary works can be ‘read’ as illustrations of the development of a political ideology that leans towards ‘opposing’ and is critical of injustice and the cultural legacy of the establishment. ‘An undisclosed Marxist orientation’ as Putu Oka himself expresses it, is an ideology of opposition which seems to arise without people ever having heard of Marx and Marxism.

Sitor Situmorang, Indonesian poet and politician

Ever since he began his life as a poet he has had a particular interest in the social problems and inequalities of life which can beset anyone.